ITH Poker Forum

[mchilger]

Overall this is a good book for a beginner who wants to learn full ring hold em. It's well-written, easy to understand, structured in a logical manner, and comprehensive. I bought it mainly for the section on short-handed play, which, I think is not that good. The strategy is based on tight, passive tables, and recommends playing like a maniac. That's a good way to throw your money away. Maybe in the upper limits there are tight tables, but I doubt many of them are passive. He should have presented a strategy for loose tables, which is mostly what you'll find in short-handed play in the lower limits, and possibly in the higher ones too. There is not much written about short-handed hold em, I think because it's still fairly new and the people making money at it aren't talking. I don't think the author of this book has played much short-handed--or any of the other authors for that matter. They all say it's completely different from full ring games, but it really isn't. There are 3 or 4 fewer players, so you have to play looser. And forget about those little suited connectors--they'll just eat up your chips in a short-handed game.

First review has come in from Amazon on the new edition.

For those who have read the book, I'd be interested in hearing what parts of this review you agree with and which parts you don't. I have agreements and disagreements myself but would like to hear what other people think.

Matthew

[Willem]

I agree with it in the sense that the style is only applicable to those tight, slightly passive opponents. But I think it can work pretty well on lower limits too, as long as you keep in mind that you back off in multiway pots. But for those situations, there is a good multiway chapter too. The place where you need to be careful are the mid limits where many opponent fight fire with fire, and make all kinds of spastic re-bluffs. But the essence of the strategy is sound, condition your opponents into calling stations and get max value on you hands.

The remark "I don't think the author of this book has played much short-handed" is completely wrong as Matthew is probably the only author (who wrote a LHE book) capable of beating the $30/$60 and $50/$100 games online.

So, it's not the definitive work on shorthanded LHE, but it's definitely worth reading. With the games as competitive as they are now, no single book will be enough to beat games $10/$20 and higher.

[blah730235]

And forget about those little suited connectors--they'll just eat up your chips in a short-handed game.

Don't know about in limit but if he's talking about short-handed NL holdem this pretty much discredits everything he has to say.

[lefty100]

I also bought ]ITH[ for the section on short-handed games and found it to be valuable--I particularly liked thinking through the test hands. But, I found that the games on Poker Stars, even the low limit 1/2 & 2/4 games that suit me at this point, are not passive and that there were only a few maniacs. Had to go to .25/.50 to find the really crazy ones. I based my chart of Starting Hands on MH's but I conservatized them quite a bit and I don't always Raise First In. Another excellent book is "Small Stakes Hold 'em" by Ed Miller et al. I have both books out all the time and am glad to have them.